After years of pondering retirement and suggesting it would arrive sooner rather than later, Louisville coach Rick Pitino appears to have decided, as he put it at a Tuesday news conference, “I don't know if I can live without basketball.”

Pitino, 60, agreed to a contract extension at Louisville that runs through the 2021-22 season. Pitino will be just short of his 70th birthday when the term expires.

Only last December, Pitino had pronounced that wouldn’t coach past 2017, when his previous contract term was to end. “When you're 59, you're realistic that you don't have a whole lot of years left," Pitino said then. “My contract's going to run out in 2017. I'm not coaching anymore after that."

Pitino’s base salary will remain $3.9 million, with a $600,000 retention bonus to be paid every other year starting in 2014, according to WDRB-TV's Eric Crawford. There also are additional incentives for various achievements, including Big East championships and high scores in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate.